(Missouri Basketball App) - Missouri Basketball completes its first regular season of play in the Southeastern Conference on Saturday as the Tigers face one of the country’s hottest teams, the Tennessee Volunteers, on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. in Thompson-Boling Arena.

Missouri will play its first game in Thompson-Boling on Saturday, but the Tigers have faced Tennessee in Knoxville three times since the series began in 1961 ... Missouri is 2-1 in Knoxville winning 86-61 in 1961 and again in 1972 (67-57) ... The last meeting in the series was a 67-54 Volunteer win in Knoxville in 1985.

Missouri is playing some of its best basketball down the stretch and has won four of its last five games, including its most recent road decision at South Carolina (90-68) on Feb. 28 ... Missouri has been outstanding from the floor during those five games averaging 83.6 points on 53.3 percent shooting ... Over the last three games the Tigers are averaging 90.7 points and shooting 61.4 percent from the floor in wins against South Carolina, LSU and Arkansas.

Laurence Bowers returns to his home state for his final regular season game ... The Memphis, Tenn., native has been on a tear over his last two games, averaging 23.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in wins against LSU and Arkansas ... A 2012 graduate of Mizzou and just one semester shy of his master’s degree, Bowers is on a run of back-to-back double-doubles and is making a late push for All-America consideration after missing five games with an MCL injury (also missed all of the 2011-12 season with an ACL tear).

Mizzou is the lone high major team in college hoops with six players averaging double figures in scoring ... The Tigers have been one of college basketball’s more balanced scoring teams since 2010-11 having five players in double figures in 2010-11 and 2011-12 before having six in double figures this season.

Phil Pressey is the lone Tiger ever to play a complete season for Head Coach Frank Haith and if you break down the numbers Missouri is getting 84.7 percent of its scoring and 91.9 percent of its rebounding from players that did not see action for the club last season.

Pressey has 552 career assists and is in “no man’s land” with regards to career dimes and conference rank, but he would be seventh all-time in Big 12 history and just 72 assists shy of the Top 10 in SEC history ... He is also just 12 assists shy of the single-season record for assists at Mizzou, breaking his own mark set last year.

Missouri is one of college basketball’s winningest teams since 2008-09 ... The Tigers have 129 wins over the last five years, which is ninth among high major programs nationally.

Mizzou continues to be one of the country’s better rebounding clubs, ranking No. 2 nationally with 41.4 boards per game ... Missouri has done a great job on the backboard in its last 12 contests, boasting a rebounding margin of +12.1 ... The Tigers have out-rebounded 25-of-30 opponents this year.

Keion Bell continues to have an All-SEC type season and is averaging 16.6 points in his last 10 games, while also shooting 58 percent from the floor and contributing 4.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game.

Jabari Brown has also been outstanding in league play and ranks sixth in the league with 15.1 points per night ... Brown has hit three or more treys in 11-of-21 games this season and has been one of the more consistent perimeter jump shooters, hitting 38 percent from three during SEC play.

Mizzou Basketball Cliff Notes...

Missouri Basketball finishes off the regular season on Saturday as the Tigers travel to Knoxville, Tenn., to face one of the league’s hottest teams, the Tennessee Volunteers.

Missouri is looking for its 12th conference win of the season and the game has huge SEC Tournament seeding implications ... The Tigers would finish as high as No. 2 or No. 3 in the seedings with a win, but could still finish as low as sixth due to tie-breakers with a loss.

Missouri is in the midst of its fifth consecutive 20-win campaign, a new school record ... The Tigers have actually won 23+ games each of the last four seasons and need one more win to match that feat as well.

MU had also won 20+ games in four consecutive years from 1988-92 and 1979-83 before eclipsing that mark.

Mizzou put the finishing touches on an undefeated home campaign and will look for its third road win in the last five games ... Missouri has battled through a number of near-misses away from home and its last four road losses were decided by a combined 14 points and the seven-point loss at Kentucky was in overtime.

Tiger fans will see a familiar last name on the Volunteer roster, Quinton Chievous, who is the son of Derrick Chievous, Missouri’s all-time leading scorer ... The Band-Aid Man scored 2,580 points in his Tiger career and was drafted in the first round of the 1988 NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets (No. 16 overall).

Tennessee is just outside of the Top 25 rankings, but head coach Frank Haith is a very good 9-4 vs. Top 25 opponents at Mizzou and is 5-3 vs. the Top 10.

Missouri is 5-2 vs. Top 10 opponents at home since 2008-09 and is 8-4 vs. Top 12 opponents since Mizzou Arena opened in 2004-05.

Missouri is coming off a resounding 93-63 win over Arkansas to finish the home slate ... The Tigers got 24 points and 11 rebounds from senior Laurence Bowers in his final home game and 23 from sophomore Jabari Brown.

It was the most lopsided Mizzou win in the series and the Tigers out-rebounded Arkansas 44-19 ... No Razorback had more than three rebounds in the contest.

Missouri now leads the SEC in scoring during league play (77.1) and is averaging 83.1 points over its last eight contests.

Mizzou is No. 6 nationally in offensive rebounding percentage at 39.9 percent (KenPom.com) and have used that great rebounding to rank No. 8 nationally in offensive efficiency ... Mizzou of course led the country in offensive efficiency a season ago.

Missouri, Indiana, Creighton and Florida are the lone teams to rank among the Top 10 in offensive efficiency the last two years ... What makes that stat even more impressive is the fact the Tigers have just one player returning from last season’s team, Phil Pressey, and are getting nearly 92 percent of their scoring production from fresh faces.

Mizzou is also much improved in its defensive efficiency over last season ... Per Kenpom.com, the Tigers are No. 71 in defensive efficiency compared to No. 115 last year.

Head Coach Frank Haith won his 50th game at Mizzou on Feb. 28 at South Carolina (63 total games) ... He was the fastest to 50 wins in school history.

To put that in perspective Mike Anderson won his 50th game in his 81st try, Quin Snyder won No. 50 in his 80th game and Norm Stewart grabbed win No. 50 at Mizzou in his 92nd game ... George Edwards is actually No. 2 on the list, winning his 50th game in his 79th attempt ... Wilbur Stalcup won his 50th in game 86 tries.

Missouri has tied a school record with six different players having scored at least 20 points in a game this season ... The last time that happened at Mizzou was during the 2008-09 season.

Overall Missouri has 24 20-point efforts from those six players after having 33 20-point nights last year.

Mizzou has played just 12 games this season with its regular rotation ... The Tigers are 9-3 in those contests and three of those eight wins are vs. ranked opponents (No. 10 Illinois, No. 23 Ole Miss and No. 4 Florida).

With injuries and a near complete roster turnover, Missouri has used eight different starting lineups this year ... Haith used the same starting lineup throughout the 2011-12 campaign.

The Tigers lead the SEC in free throw shooting, hitting 76.4 percent of their charity tosses in league play ... Overall this season the Tigers have made 476 free throws and their opponents have attempted just 505.

Nationally the Tigers rank No. 29 in free throw percentage (.746) and are the No. 5 high major free throw shooting team in America ... Oklahoma is No. 11 nationally (.760), Utah is No. 16 (.753), UConn is No. 24 (.748) and Oklahoma State in No. 27 (.747).

A big reason for those free throw numbers is the senior forward Alex Oriakhi, who is shooting a career best 75.0 percent at the line on the year and is hitting 78.9 percent of his attempts in league play.

Oriakhi is the first Tiger to average 8.0+ rebounds and shoot 70+ percent from the foul line since Doug Smith in 1990-91.

Over the last four seasons Missouri is shooting 74.4 percent (2089-of-2809) from the foul line as a team and the Tigers have not been below 72.4 percent as a team since 2008-09.

Mizzou has been very good in the second half of games all season ... The Tigers are averaging 41.5 points and are shooting 50.3 percent from the floor, 37.1 percent from three-point range and 77.4 percent from the foul line in the second half this year.

The club boasts a +6.5 scoring margin (41.3-to-34.8) in this second half of those games as well.

Mizzou’s defense was outstanding at home this season, as just three teams topped 70 points vs. the Tigers (Auburn, Ole Miss and LSU) and opponents averaged just 62.4 points on 38 percent shooting at Mizzou Arena.

Missouri has been one of the country’s top rebounding teams throughout the year and has out-rebounded 25-of-30 foes in 2012-13 ... Missouri tied its largest rebounding margin of the year on March 5 (+25) vs. Arkansas and has recorded a double-digit rebounding advantages in 16-of-30 games, including four straight vs. Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Arkansas and Florida.

The Tigers also average 13.8 offensive rebounds per game (No. 19 nationally) and turn that into 13.9 second-chance points per contest.

Missouri has had six different players record double-figures in rebounds in a game this season, which is the most since six Tigers accomplished the feat during the 1995-96 campaign ... The school record for the number of players recording at least 10 rebounds in one game is seven, set during the 1959-60 season.

In addition, Missouri already has a total of 21 point-rebound double-doubles between four different players (Bowers, Oriakhi, Ross and Bell), bettering the nine team double-doubles for Mizzou in 2011-12.

Although the Tigers have a number of familiar faces due to transfer years with the program, just one player, Phil Pressey, has played for Head Coach Frank Haith ... Missouri is getting 84.7 percent of its scoring and 91.9 percent of its rebounding from players that did not see action at Mizzou a season ago.

Missouri continues to get strong bench production thanks to the consistent play of Tony Criswell, Earnest Ross and the addition of Jabari Brown ... Missouri is averaging 18.5 points per game from its bench on the year.

Despite having so many newcomers, Mizzou has been balanced through 30 games with eight players averaging at least 16.9 minutes a contest ... Nine different Tigers have also reached double figures in scoring in a game this season and seven different Tigers have recorded at least 7+ boards in a game.

Missouri has won 73 consecutive regular-season, non-conference home games since 2005-06 and since 2006-07 (66-0) the club’s average margin of victory has been 26.7 points in those non-league home tilts.

Missouri is 16-0 in home non-league games under Frank Haith and 15 of those 16 wins have been by double figures ... In fact Mizzou is 24-2 in regular season non-league games under Haith and have won 18 of those games by 10 or more points, including wins over Villanova (10), Notre Dame (29) and California (39) on neutral courts.

Haith was of course named the National Coach of the Year by the Associated Press, taking the Tigers to their second 30-win season in school history and fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament.

Mizzou got an early start to its 2012-13 campaign, playing five games in Europe from Aug. 8-18 ... However none of Missouri’s current players saw action overseas, proving to be a great opportunity for the MU newcomers to get extended playing time.

The Tigers played games in Amsterdam, Belgium and France.

Mizzou also had four players ranked among the top players at their position by CBS Sports ... Phil Pressey headlined that list at No. 2 among point guards.

In the front court Alex Oriakhi was ranked No. 35 and Laurence Bowers checked in at No. 38.

Newcomer Jabari Brown was ranked among college hoop’s top wing players, checking in at No. 48.